Himantopus himantopus
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is a widely distributed, very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family Recurvirostridae. Its scientific name, Himantopus himantopus, is sometimes used to generalize a single, almost cosmopolitan species. Alternatively, it is restricted to the form that is widespread in Europe, Asia and Africa, which equals the nominate group of H. himantopus sensu lato. Meanwhile, the black-necked (H. mexicanus) and white-backed stilts (H. melanurus) both inhabit the Americas; the pied stilt (H. leucocephalus) ranges from Australia and New Zealand. Today, most sources accept between one and four actual species.
The black-winged stilt was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius himantopus. He specified the type locality as southern Europe. The taxonomic name Himantopus comes from Greek, meaning "strap-foot" or "thong-foot". The black-winged stilt is now one of five species placed in the genus Himantopus that was introduced by the French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-winged Stilt sighting in Virunga National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 232nd most-seen of the 316 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February, April and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-winged Stilt in Virunga National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March, May–September and November–January, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-winged Stilt sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
54th of 72
Of the 72 parks where we can rate Black-winged Stilt sightings, Virunga National Park ranks 54th at under 5%. The best odds are in Doñana National Park (Spain, about 70%), Keoladeo National Park (India, about 60%) and Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 60%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Black-winged Stilt that you can see in Virunga National Park (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Spur-winged Lapwing (about 30%), African Jacana (about 20%) and Water Thick-knee (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-winged Stilt is recorded against all the birds logged in Virunga National Park (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
